Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Haptic Glove and Platform with Gestural Control for Neuromorphic Tactile Sensory Feedback in Medical Telepresence

Jessica D'Abbraccio
,
Luca Massari
,
Sahana Prasanna
ORCID logo ,
Laura Baldini
,
Francesca Sorgini
,
Giuseppe Airò Farulla
,
Andrea Bulletti
ORCID logo ,
Marina Mazzoni
ORCID logo ,
Lorenzo Capineri
ORCID logo ,
Arianna Menciassi
,
Petar Petrovic
,
Eduardo Palermo
ORCID logo ,
Calogero Maria Oddo
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 27 December 2018 / Approved: 28 December 2018 / Online: 28 December 2018 (12:31:26 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

D’Abbraccio, J.; Massari, L.; Prasanna, S.; Baldini, L.; Sorgini, F.; Airò Farulla, G.; Bulletti, A.; Mazzoni, M.; Capineri, L.; Menciassi, A.; Petrovic, P.; Palermo, E.; Oddo, C.M. Haptic Glove and Platform with Gestural Control For Neuromorphic Tactile Sensory Feedback In Medical Telepresence †. Sensors 2019, 19, 641. D’Abbraccio, J.; Massari, L.; Prasanna, S.; Baldini, L.; Sorgini, F.; Airò Farulla, G.; Bulletti, A.; Mazzoni, M.; Capineri, L.; Menciassi, A.; Petrovic, P.; Palermo, E.; Oddo, C.M. Haptic Glove and Platform with Gestural Control For Neuromorphic Tactile Sensory Feedback In Medical Telepresence †. Sensors 2019, 19, 641.

Abstract

The advancements in the study of the human sense of touch are fueling the field of haptics. This is paving the way for augmenting the sensory perception during objects palpation in tele-surgery, and reproducing the information through tactile feedback. Here, we present a novel tele-palpation apparatus that enables the user to detect nodules with various distinct stiffness buried in an ad-hoc polymeric phantom. The contact force measured by the platform was encoded using a neuromorphic model and reproduced on the index fingertip of a remote user through a haptic glove embedding a piezoelectric disk. We assessed the effectiveness of this feedback in allowing nodule identification under two experimental conditions of real-time telepresence: In Line of Sight (ILS), where the platform was placed in the visible range of a user; and the more demanding Not In Line of Sight (NILS), with the platform being 50 km apart. We found that the entailed percentage of identification was higher for stiffer inclusions with respect to the softer ones (average of 74% within the duration of the task), in both telepresence conditions evaluated. These promising results call for further exploration of tactile augmentation technology for telepresence in medical interventions.

Keywords

Nodules detection, neuromorphic touch, polymeric phantom, sensory augmentation, tactile telepresence, teleoperation, tele-palpation, vibro-tactile stimulation

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Other

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download PDF

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0
Get PDF Cite Share 0
Bookmark BibSonomy Mendeley Reddit Delicious
×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.